Ethiopia 2014: I Always Remember in November and in…

Oh, Cruel November 2005!

In 2005, Ethiopians faced unspeakable horrors. Following the parliamentary elections in May of that year, hundreds of Ethiopian citizens who protested the daylight theft of that election were massacred or seriously shot and wounded by police and security personnel under the exclusive command and control of the late regime leader Meles Zenawi. An official Inquiry Commission established by Zenawi documented that 193 unarmed men, women and children demonstrating in the streets and scores of other detainees held in a high security prison were intentionally shot and killed by police and security officials. An additional 763 were wounded**.

Every November since 2007, I have written consecratory (sanctifying) memorials in remembrance of the hundreds of innocent victims of the Meles Massacres. In my first memorial tribute in 2007,“Remember, the Ethiopian Martyrs of June and November, 2005 Forever!”, I reminded my readers that it was our moral duty “to bear witness for the dead and the living” in Ethiopia, to borrow a phrase from Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor.

We must remember the victims of the Meles Massacres because, as Elie Wiesel said, we have “no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”

I must confess that November is the cruelest month for me. If I could, I would skip straight from October to December. If I had the power, I would outlaw November. If there were no November, I would not have to remember. Mark Twain said, “If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.” He was wrong. If you tell the truth you remember everything, especially the lies, the cries, the crimes and the massacres.

It is important for me to remember and to tell the truth about the crimes against humanity committed by the late Meles Zenawi and his criminal enterprise known as the Tigrean Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF). When Meles Zenawi ordered the massacre of hundreds of unarmed protesters in June and November 2005, he wanted to send a clear and unmistakable message to the Ethiopian people that he is so ruthless that he will kill, slash and burn on an INDUSTRIAL scale to keep himself and his TPLF in power forever. Meles Zenawi was an astute student of Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler: “The best political weapon is the weapon of terror. Cruelty commands respect. Men may hate us. But, we don’t ask for their love; only for their fear.”

Meles and his TPLF gang have always used the weapon of terror from their days in the bush; and today they practice terror using their so-called anti-terrorism law. Meles sought to command respect by committing acts of unspeakable cruelty and depravity. He did not get respect; he got the contempt and derision of the overwhelming segment of the Ethiopian population. Meles and his gang always wanted to be feared. They are not feared; they are loathed and despised by the Ethiopian people. That is just the naked truth!

When Meles massacred the hundreds of unarmed protesters in 2005, he had no idea that he had transformed a detached and disengaged Ethiopian academic and lawyer some nine thousand miles from Addis Ababa, who had not been to Ethiopia in over three decades, to become his most implacable and unappeasable adversary and relentless critic. The Meles Massacres turned out to be defining moments in my life. I realized that even though I had permanently moved out of Ethiopia, Ethiopia had not permanently moved out of me. It has been said that in desperate times we either define the moment or the moment defines us. In my case, it was both.

I did not choose to be a human rights advocate; Meles Zenawi chose me when he ordered the massacre of those unarmed Ethiopians. I never chose to become a witness for the victims of the Meles Massacres; the victims of the Meles Massacre chose me to be their witness. That is why I have testified on their behalf before the court of world opinion every single Monday, without missing A SINGLE week, for eight years.

Before 2005, the late Meles Zenawi was just a miserable scalawag African dictator who did not even deserve my dismissive contempt; after he ordered the 2005 massacre, he became the apotheoses of evil, the Biblical Beast, in my mind. I must fight evil because evil never dies. I must fight evil above all because I have no doubts whatsoever in the final victory of good over evil.

That’s why every November, I must remember. I must remember the evil of November, December, September, October….

I must remember the evil Meles Zenawi and his TPLF gang have done in Ethiopia. I must remember what they have done to dismember Ethiopia. I must remember how they continue to divide the people just to cling to power. I must remember the billions they have stolen and stashed in OFF SHORE bank accounts while the people starve and languish in poverty.

I must remember the living victims of Meles Zenawi and the TPLF. I remember my brother Eskinder Nega, the internationally-celebrated Ethiopian journalist, languishing in solitary confinement at the Meles Zenawi Prison a few kilometers outside the capital. I remember my young sister Reeyot Alemu, jailed by Meles Zenawi because she dared to ask questions about his white elephant projects. I remember my brothers Andualem Aragie, Bekele Gerba, Abubaker Ahmed, Woubshet Taye, the young Zone Nine bloggers, Temesgen Desalegn and so many others.